Dyvers
This page may be a Stub or not include some information. For a full article on the topic with citations, please see ' ' at Greyhawkonline.com. Dyvers is an independent city nestled on the southwestern shore of the Nyr Dyv, or “Lake of the Unknown Depths.” Because of its location at the mouth of the Velverdyva River, most water traffic from nations to the west of Dyvers-Veluna, Bissel, and Furyondy, on the northern shore of the Nyr Dyv-passes through the city. History Once just a river town, a part of the Gold County of the Ferrand satrapy of the Great Kingdom of Aerdy, the city originally named Dyvar (“deep water”) became a hub for river and lake traffic. As the power of the Great Kingdom waned with its Overking’s sanity, the Viceroy of Ferrand sought to distance his people from the troubles of Aerdy. In the war that followed to free Ferrand from the Great Kingdom’s control, Dyvers’s contributions of food, money, weapons, and soldiers proved vital to claiming the eventual victory. Count Thrommel I, heir to the viceroy, was crowned the first King of Furyondy in Dyvers in 254 CY. For a time Dyvers served as the capital of this new nation. In 288 CY the capital was moved to the more central and better-defended city of Chendl. Despite this change in status, Dyvers continued to prosper as a trade city. Eventually, Furyondy’s ties with the theocratic nation of Veluna made the leaders of Dyvers increasingly uncomfortable. The Gentry of Dyvers saw Veluna’s policies as too restrictive. Fortunately, friendly relations between that nation and Dyvers’s sovereign state finally prompted the cosmopolitan city to declare its independence from Furyondy in 526 CY. King Thrommel II of Furyondy allowed this act to pass unchallenged so long as taxes continued to make their way into the Furyondian treasury. Both Furyondy and Dyvers viewed the rise of the city of Greyhawk as a financia1 threat and felt that an independent but allied Dyvers would go far in maintaining fair levels of trade. Dyveq still retains a portion of the colors and symbols of Furyondy’s flag in its own coat of arms. The years after the fall of the Temple of Elemental Evil in 569 CY were another turning point in the history of Dyvers. The city was forced to increase its military forces in order to defeat humanoids flee- ing the victorious forces of good from the temple. When Iuz, the evil demigod of pain and oppression, invaded the Shield Lands, hundreds of refugees fled south to Dyvers for sanctuary. Iuz’s later attacks on Furyondy caused Dyvers to once again add to its militia, fearing the forces of evil might reach their doorstep. During the Greyhawk Wars (582-584 CY), more refugees arrived from Furyondy and the Shield Lands, as well as from the Wild Coast fleeing Turrosh Mak’s ore armies, from Greyhawk when many lost their homes in the Old City Fire of 584, and even from far-off Tenh and Nyrond. As things began to settle down in 585 CY, reports came that members of the Furyondian Knights of the Hart appealed to King Belvor IV to annex Dyvers and the nearby free city of Verbobonc. Verbobonc, loyal to Veluna, hosted a visit from a Velunan representative to assure the populace that their Furyondian allies would do no such thing. However, Magister Margus, the lord mayor of Dyvers, dismissed the possibility of annexation and failed to address the concerns of his constituents. He was recalled from office by a vote later that year. His successor, Larissa Hunter, First Captain of the Dyvers Free Army, was an aggressive patriot. Her enthusiasm and popularity forced King Belvor to send a representative to Dyvers in order to assure the city that it had nothing to fear from the kingdom or the Knights of the Hart, whom Belvor privately told to shut up. Magister Larissa then turned to defend Dyvers’s eastern border from the domain of Greyhawk, which had hemmed the city in. She dispossessed two minor Dyversian nobles on the eastern border when she learned they planned to switch allegiance to Greyhawk. Turning their property over to another noble family, she directed them to build a castle just beyond the town of Maraven, guarding the eastern road to Greyhawk. This castle, Eastguard, solidified Dyvers’s eastern border with Greyhawk and ended all talk of losing western lands through defection. Larissa also had the road to Greyhawk improved to increase trade, and warned the directing oligarchy of Greyhawk that the presence of any Greyhawk soldiers within 10 miles of Maraven would be consid ered an act of war. The oligarchs assured her that Greyhawk had only peaceful intentions toward Dyvers, and Larissa has since been able to turn her attentions inward to promote the welfare of her citizens.